Electronic component carriers or as they are more commonly known chip carriers find use in a variety of electronic applications. Chip carriers provide encapsulation for electronic components, or dies, protecting them from the external environment. The carriers provide protection for the electronic components (i.e. IC die) during manufacturing, and testing of the electronic component assembly, and also later when they are placed into final products. Carriers also provide protection from dust, humidity, and other environental factors which can ruin the delicate dies.
One major problem associated with prior art carriers especially for use in high frequency devices is that they do not provide for shielding from radiation such as generated by external radio frequency interference sources (or from the device itself to other outside components). The ability to effectively shield high frequency circuits especially in electronic equipment such as two way radios is critical. Another major problem associated with prior art carriers is that they do not utilize the benefits of a thin drawn metallized shield in order to provide heatsinking and mechanical integrity to a low profile carrier assembly. Present art carriers tend to be to big for use in high density assembly applications.
As a result a need exists in the art for a low profile electronic component carrier which has good shielding, heatsinking, and mechanical integrity features especially when dealing with high frequency electronic circuits.